A Sentiment

God knew what He was doing when He sent a gentle breeze and brought a lovely butterfly to set my heart at ease. The happiness of your friendship and the gentleness of your words have touched my life in special ways and now I feel assured. Thank you for your loyalty and for reading everyday. I only hope you find things to make a happy day.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Fall Cleanup...So Easy and a Wedding Promise




Last evening we were listening to the weather forecast...Wed. was to be our last good day as far as the weather goes. Oh, dear, what should I do? The young man, who was to come and help, had forgotten me and my yard was needing some attention. At 5...I got my getup on and grabbed my gloves, clippers, pruners, chair, lawn cart and headed out to get the job done. As I moved around the house, I took my chair and sat, while I cut things down. Waiting till later in the fall had made the hostas soft and squishy. All I had to do was pull them ...so easy. This job was a piece of cake. I left the Autumn Joy Sedums for winter interest. Now let me tell you about my experience with winter interest...it always looks like some weeds that I have forgotten to cut down. Maybe this year will be different. They are really striking right now. Beautiful color...burgundy flowers and bright green stems. Moving on, I come to the place under the bird feeder. Where there is seed drop...grasses are growing. Leaving them this long...they are long and tall....so easy to pull up. Moving on around the house the Stella's are next. They are brown and withered. Such an easy task. Don't tell Joe! A little rodent scampered out of the Stella's and under the air conditioner. He was black with beady eyes. He looked at me...I looked at him and he ran for his hole. "OK, little one...you can stay here for the winter...just don't come in the house." I reached the Lilys of the Valley. Waiting until now...the leaves were flat on the ground and a brownish mass. I decided to leave them...they will disintegrate under the snow and the new ones will come up and be so thick that they will not be noticed. This job, that I had been dreading, took me an hour and a half. Next year, I won't be so anxious to go out and do my fall cleanup. If I let nature take it's course...the job will be easier, because the plants disintegrate and are easier to get rid of. I was finished with my job and it was still warm and light out. Joe came out...just in time to wheel the cart back to the woods to dump. We sat on the bench and looked at the woods. He said that he would use the weed whacker back there for me. We can do it together and get the job done. As we walked back up to the house, we noticed all the leaves on the ground under the trees. The trees have grown in the years that we have been married and now the ground is covered under the trees. I lived in a house with huge trees before marrying Joe. Every year, I was knee deep in leaves. I wrote about this before on this blog. Before we married, one of his wedding promises was that I would never have to rake leaves again I'm holding him to it :)


Balisha

5 comments:

Lona said...

Way to go Balisha! That should be the part of every marriage nuptial, the husband rakes the leaves.LOL I am sure he is glad to do it.Your autumn joy plants are so pretty.

Noelle Johnson said...

Hello Balisha,

Your sedum are just beautiful! I hope your husband finishes raking up the leaves soon!

Elenka said...

Good idea, so I'm NOT too late. I never know which plants I could cut down and which to leave. I thought that I read somewhere that some plants should not be clipped back in the fall, so I just leave everything.
What should I be doing??

Balisha said...

Hi...I just cut the hostas down..and I have tons of these, then the big aster plant in the front garden (when it's through blooming) I cut back the Stella D'Oro lilies and I cut anything tall that would whip around in the wind. If the wind blows too hard the plants could be uprooted.I leave some of the mum foliage (not the flowers) and mulch them good. Most everything else I leave just as it is.My clematis vines all can be cut back in the spring. I like a tidy garden, so I like to trim and give plants a haircut for winter. I let the leaves gather on the beds and put extra mulch on my roses. That's my way of doing things.

Gram said...

Love your sedum. I have the same feeling about winter interest - it begins to look uncared for about Jan with the exception of my ornamental grasses. I am so glad I have them. I am planning on cleaning the yard this Saturday. We have had frost and a couple snows so it needs to get done. I hope mine goes as well as yours.